Upgrading 10.3 To 11.0 When It's Out.

Can I do a direct upgrade? Like you can in Ubuntu. Or do I have to re-install?

Cheers.

only with the dvd not with cd's.

So when openSUSE 11.0 is officially released I can do an upgrade from the downloaded dvd ISO. What about existing programs installed does it update them to. For example Firefox or Pidgin etc.

the software that is both in your computer and in the opensuse 11 dvd will be upgraded. If you install with advanced options, you can choose what to install (upgrade) or not install (keep previous version).

not 100% sure if this is true but couldn't you just add the 11.0 repo's. Thats how some were updating from 10.3 to 11.0 beta.

not 100% sure if this is try but couldn't you just add the 11.0 repo's. Thats how some were updating from 10.3 to 11.0 beta.
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Yes, if you're going to try and do an update, this is the better way to do it in many cases.

Upgrading from the DVD will potentially break if you have any packages installed form external sources, including the build-service. In the past I've always changed my install sources to point to equivalent "next version" repos, and then used Yast -> System Update to manage my update. I always run into an inevitable mess of dependency errors, but after working through them, I've always managed to upgrade and boot into the new system.

Having said that, and having been burned by the odd quirk in the past, I'd recommend a clean install unless you can't avoid it. Best part is, the installer on 11.0 is lightning fast. A standard install will only be something like 20-30 minutes, which is a marked improvement over the previous versions.

It's always best to create a separate partition for /home. That way you can do a clean install on your system partition(s) without affecting /home (and preserving your files etc.), and the installer can optionally absorb the user ids from your previous installation to keep everything clean.

Just my 2c...

Cheers,
KV